That new crime-fighting squad, how are other cops taking it?

How is the police force taking the news that a special team of 400 has been formed by their boss, the Home Minister, to tackle the problem the rest of the police in Malaysia could not solve, namely, crime?

When announcing the new team on Saturday, Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the team, made up of two squads, was created to manage the perception that the police were taking bribes.

The bulk of the senior officers The Malaysian Insider spoke to were diplomatic or resigned. No one was prepared to kick up a fuss about it.

An OCPD from Selangor said it cannot be denied that there is corruption in the force. Such corruption is widely believed to hamper police efforts to destroy organised crime and gangsterism in Malaysia.

Another senior officer pointed out that the two squads will be focusing only on syndicated crime and hardcore criminals.

"The teams will be more effective as they are not known to the underworld and their movements will go unnoticed," he said.

Several other senior officers, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they will fall in line with the decision as they believe it was made after much consideration.

"We have to look at it positively. There is no other way around it," said a district police chief in Penang.

He argued that there is no issue of trust but rather that the 400 officers in Bukit Aman are better equipped, with extensive resources to work with.

Another officer said the new squads will help with the workload, adding, "policemen at district level have too much on their plate. We are not disheartened by this move.”

The new team will bypass the usual chain of command, meaning they do not have to report to state and district police headquarters. They report to Bukit Aman.

While it is widely accepted that this is to bypass the corruption that has hampered efforts to combat gangsterism, Zahid, however, put it that the new step was merely to combat the perception of increased crime.

The team will be led by a police commissioner, a position usually reserved for heads of the various police branches.

An OCPD from Johor admitted that there is still a lot of hard work ahead, even with the new team.

“The solution is not something you can find in a textbook. We need to be creative and use different approaches in dealing with the problems. Do not generalise all of us as corrupt, as there are those who want to serve sincerely," he said.

It was revealed to The Malaysian Insider that the newly formed squads were involved in the raid where five suspected gang members were shot in Penang last week.

That raid is mired in controversy as the families of the slain gangsters have alleged that it was an execution, not a shootout.

Even Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office P. Waythamoorthy has raised questions about it, saying that photographs of the slain suggest it could have been an execution.